My wooden puerh humidor builing adventure

Salsero wrote:This is all very exciting. My own set up is closer to Dizzwave's than Ti's gorgeous handmade box.

No...that box isn't mine. That nice box is shogun89's.

I haven't made mine yet. I want to build mine but I'm not completely happy with my pine wood and besides I haven't had the time to make it yet, although I wanted to do it two weeks ago. It's not an imperative right now because it's summer and my humidity is reading 79%. I'm more worried about winter when my forced-hot-air heat comes on and the air really dies out. By then I will have made mine.

BTW, you can get the stuff at any florist's and it is really cheap.

Right. And when it gets screwed up with mold or whatever it's no big financial investment to toss it and put in a new one.

Ti also wrote:Right. And when it gets screwed up with mold or whatever it's no big financial investment to toss it and put in a new one.

True that. I guess I should just go ahead and start using some!

It is indeed a nice pu box.. I was even thinking they could become stackable when he runs out of room to separate different types.

I did some positioning of the cakes in the box and found that I will be able to get 10 cakes, and about 6 bricks/tou cha's on the top shelf and another 3 cakes and 2 bricks on the bottom in front of the humidity tray.

shogun89 wrote:I did some positioning of the cakes in the box and found that I will be able to get 10 cakes, and about 6 bricks/tou cha's on the top shelf and another 3 cakes and 2 bricks on the bottom in front of the humidity tray.

shogun89 wrote:Thats not a bad idea, Only problem is that I would need to re-season it every month too.

Hmm, good point. Which reminds me.... If the wood in my cabinet is already "finished", do I need to season it? I hope not..

btw, I got a big brick of floral sponge for $1. The florist knew exactly what I was talking about, and said that people use it in humidors all the time. And that "these things hold a butt-load of water." He was right -- it's amazing how much they hold!
So I got some distilled water, and I'm starting over again..... This morning I was back to 50% after having dried out for a couple days (as I waited to get the right water), and hopefully it's climbing again -- and not just being absorbed into the wood!!!

Dave,
Glad to hear that you got your foam and water. They do hold alot of water, Its fun pouring the water on them and watching as it magically disappears, hehe. Most likely if your cabinet is finished you do not have to season it. All the seasoning does is make the wood absorb the moisture quicker that if the water was evaporating. It takes about 2 days where as if you just put the cakes in a cabinet with only the foam it could takes up to 2 months before you have excess humidity. My puidor has been holding at 65% for a few weeks now, I want it at about 70-75 so I'm going to start sealing gaps in the door with strips of leather or foam or something to hopefully make it a little more air tight. If your cabinet builds up in humidity without your cakes in there your fine and do not have to season. If a few days go by with no significant rise in humidity you are going to have to season it.
-Dallas

Good to hear! Mine is slowly rising too.. It fluctuates a lot, from the upper 50s to the mid 70s, even within one day. I'm not sure what's causing that... But every day, it seems the range of fluctuation gets a little higher. Part of it might be that I keep adding more sponge...